Flower-shaped structure, frozen through high-speed photography, found during the collapse of bubbles at the surface of a champagne flute.

What provides the wonderful aromas is a long neuro-physico-chemical process that results in bubbles fizzing at the surface of champagne

Ever wondered how the fate of champagne bubbles from their birth to their death with a pop enhances our perception of aromas? These concerns, which are relevant to champagne producers, are the focus of a special issue of EPJ Special Topics, due to be published in early January 2017 - celebrating the 10th anniversary of the publication. Thanks to scientists, champagne producers are now aware of the many neuro-physico-chemical mechanisms responsible for aroma release and flavour perception. The taste results from the complex interplay between the level of CO2 and the agents responsible for the aroma - known as volatile organic compounds - dispersed in champagne bubbles, as well as temperature, glass shape, and bubbling rate.

Snapshot of the study of economic phenomena using the tools of physics

How would you go about understanding how markets can suddenly be gripped by panic? To physicists, using a model originally developed to explain magnetism might make sense. Yet, economists may find this extremely counter-intuitive. Both physical and economic phenomena may possess universal features that could be uncovered using the tools of physics. The principal difference is that in economic systems - unlike physical ones - current actions may be influenced by the perception of future events. The latest issue of EPJ Special Topics examines the question as to whether econophysics, a physics-based approach to understanding economic phenomena, is more useful and desirable than conventional economics theories.

Few technologies have the power that particle accelerator technology has to touch upon such a broad range of applications at the many frontiers of modern science. Today, thanks to improvements in laser technology, a new generation of accelerators could soon emerge to replace accelerators relying on radio frequencies. In this new special issue, the journal EPJ Special Topics explores the requirements necessary to make such laser accelerators a reality, by presenting the work of the International Coherent Amplification Network (ICAN) research collaboration. Potential applications include future colliders, solutions for vacuum physics, design of Higgs-particle factories, creation of sources of high-flux protons and of neutrons, among others. Further, such accelerators open the door to solutions in nuclear pharmacology and proton therapy as well as orbital debris remediation.

Many challenges lie ahead before quantum annealing, the analogue version of quantum computation, contributes to solve combinatorial optimisation problems

Traditional computational tools are simply not powerful enough to solve some complex optimisation problems, like, for example, protein folding. Quantum annealing, a potentially successful implementation of analogue quantum computing, would bring about an ultra-performant computational method. A series of reviews in this topical issue of EPJ ST, guest-edited by Sei Suzuki from Saitama Medical University, Japan, and Arnab Das from the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Kolkota, India, focuses on the state of the art and challenges in quantum annealing. This approach, if proven viable, could greatly boost the capabilities of large-scale simulations and revolutionise several research fields, from biology to economics, medicine and material science.

Professional Dragon King hunter Didier Sornette from the Department of Management, Technology and Economics, ETH Zurich, Switzerland, together with his colleague Guy Ouillon, present the many facets of Dragon Kings in a review just published in EPJST. Their work has just appeared alongside nineteen other contributions exploring the ways in which this emerging field of statistical analysis could become further established.

The innermost secrets of champagne bubbles have just been unveiled in the Springer journal EPJ ST. This fascinating work is the brainchild of Gérard Liger-Belair, a scientist tackling champagne bubbles from both a physics and a chemistry perspective. Based at the University of Reims, in the heart of the region that gave champagne its name, the author is appropriately affiliated with the ‘effervescence team of the molecular and atmospheric spectrometry group’ and the ‘oenology and applied chemistry’ laboratory.